Blues slip past Stars

St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Ryan Reaves' second-period marker proved to
be the difference as the St. Louis Blues held off the Dallas Stars, 2-1, on
Friday at Scottrade Center.

Chris Stewart added a power-play goal and Brian Elliott posted 21 saves for
the Blues, who have won three straight and sit firmly in the sixth spot in the
Western Conference with 54 points.

"I thought we just managed the game today and did a good job," St. Louis coach
Ken Hitchcock said. "We found a way to win."

Antoine Roussel registered the lone Dallas goal, while Kari Lehtonen allowed
both St. Louis goals on 20 shots for the Stars, who had won six of their
last seven coming in.

With 47 points, Dallas finds itself two back of the Columbus Blue
Jackets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West with four games to
play.

A boarding penalty against Dallas forward Eric Nystrom at the 9:39 mark of the
first period gave St. Louis an early man advantage, and the Blues quickly
capitalized. Alex Pietrangelo's blast from the top of the left circle was
fought off by Lehtonen, but Stewart was there on the low right side to bury
the rebound for a 1-0 lead at 10:10.

St. Louis doubled its edge just under eight minutes into the second, when
Reaves intercepted a clearing attempt at the Dallas blue line and made his way
to the front of the net before pounding home a rebound of a Chris Porter miss
to make it 2-0 at the 7:52 mark.

Dallas cut the margin in half early in the third, when Stephane Robidas rifled
a shot from above the right circle that deflected off Roussel before sailing
high over the blocker side of Elliott to make it 2-1 at the 4:37 mark.

Lehtonen left the net with a little over a minute remaining to give the Stars
an extra attacker, but Dallas was unable to find the equalizer and the Blues
escaped with the victory.

"Not too many mistakes today, we were playing great defense and so were they.
They just got one more goal than us," Lehtonen said.

Game Notes

St. Louis improved to 12-8-1 at home, while Dallas fell to 11-10-1 on the road
... St. Louis has taken five of the last six meetings with the Stars,
including a 4-3 decision on Jan. 26 in Dallas ... The Blues finished 1-for-3
on the power play, while Dallas failed on both of its chances with the man
advantage.